


The Road Goes On

by Leonawriter



Category: Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Character Death Fix, Depending on how you see canon, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 10:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3407237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AZ would have been just fine with leaving without worrying about his brother’s idiot descendant. Floette has other ideas, and he would rather deal with a problematic add-on than risk lose his friend again so soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road Goes On

“Well, Floette? What do you think?”

They were off route. AZ had found himself travelling back to Geosenge simply by following his feet, and when Floette had wandered off in a certain direction, he had merely followed, even if it was towards the place where the stone pillars once stood.

His old friend had steered his attention towards the last pile of rubble that had yet to be cleared away. Clearly, no one expected anything to be left worth salvaging – and certainly no people.

His brow had furrowed steadily as he had gained an idea of what was going on, and he had crossed his arms at the pile.

Floette had merely stayed floating there. When he’d continued to do nothing, she had hovered and flown in agitated patterns in the air until he relented with a heavy sigh, and had got to work shifting pieces of rock and building that had been too heavy for those who had gone before him.

It had taken a while. His brother’s descendant had been buried under a lot of rubble, but fortunately there had been a pocket of safety. And now, they were safe and the boy – in many ways, after having lived as long as he had, he couldn’t think of even someone in their thirties like Lysandre was as completely adult.

Especially not when he was still acting like a child that had not yet learned how to grow up, yet had somehow still attained the power to achieve what he wished.

Floette shuddered, and went back to his hat.

AZ gave the redhead a good long look. The royal line had left its mark on him – in spades of pride as well as the lines of his face. When they had talked down in the labs, he had only been able to see that pride, a reflection of _himself_. But now that they were away from that, now that his many times great grand-nephew had come away alive if not unharmed, was sleeping if fitfully… he could see bits of his brother, as well.

 _Well,_ he thought to himself, sitting down out of sight and out of mind, _I might as well shut my eyes, too._

…

Lysandre awoke to the harsh glare of golden sunlight, and the cramp of aching muscles. His first thought was to wonder if he was dead, and that the weapon had destroyed everything in its path, and that was what the light was.

Then, he realised that the dead should feel no pain, so that could not be the case, and the light was merely the sun coming through the trees. Low, rising. He wondered how long he’d been out.

The last thing he remembered was activating the ultimate weapon, even with it at minimal strength, even just to self-destruct with what little power it had left. He remembered being knocked out by falling debris.

And now, this.

He had to have been found and brought here. Time must have passed – it was evening when those last events had happened, and the condition of his body, the hunger and thirst he felt, suggested far longer a period than one night spent unconscious.

A shadow passed over him, and at first he thought that there must be some kind of wild Pokémon in the area. More fear-inducing since he had no way to figure out what it was, or where he was given that he had no clues. And above all, the pokeballs at his belt had been damaged.

But then a small package fell down next to him – sandwiches and a bottle of water. The shadow came into the light, and then kneeled in front of him, AZ’s face leaning down so that the taller one could look him in the eye.

“So. How are you feeling?”

The question was heavy, and laden with meaning that wasn’t lost on him.

After everything, how _did_ he feel? He had failed in what he had set out to accomplish, that was a certain fact. Yet at the same time, he was alive, rather than dying in the blast. And if he was, then it was possible, even if just by a slim chance, that those young trainers had been able to survive as well.

Was it wrong that he felt a stab of relief for that? Given his target, they would have died regardless, if he had succeeded, or gained immortality.

“More or less the same as ever… I think. I’ll recover.”

AZ studied him for just long enough to make him start to feel uncomfortable, wondering if there was something the giant knew or could see that he didn’t know of.

Eventually, there was a slow nod, and AZ stood up.

“We’ll see. You’ll do for now, though.”

Lysandre shuddered, although he wasn’t completely sure what it was in reaction to. He reached over for the food, and went for the water first.

“Are you going to turn me in to the authorities, then?” he asked after finishing half the bottle in small sips and gulps for a parched mouth and throat.

The answer was a long time coming. It caused him to become edgy. If the man wished, with how he was currently feeling AZ could pick him up and carry him to the nearest town, and he would be able to do nothing about it.

And if that happened, what then? Imprisonment? He could only assume so. And with that, either complete confiscation of his Pokémon, or limited access.

More than anything he had already caused, it would cause scandal. Even if he was released, he would never be able to show his face in public again.

And Augustine, with those young trainers-

“Hm.” Lysandre started, having almost forgotten that AZ had yet to give him an answer. “I don’t know yet. I think…” His heart stopped. For just a moment, it felt as though he couldn’t breathe. “What do you think, Floette?”

He hadn’t noticed the Fairy type flower Pokémon before. But now that he did, he remembered another fact about the tale of the old king that he hadn’t thought important before.

That he had been searching, constantly searching, for an old friend. And it was always, _always_ , portrayed as a Floette.

Another chill rushed down Lysandre’s spine. _Fairy stories,_ he had always told himself. _Legends, to inspire children to be brave and to behave._

Yet the evidence all pointed to one outcome. That many coincidences could not have no meaning.

AZ nodded again, this time somewhat more decisively.

“South again it is, then.” He turned his head back to Lysandre, who was still sat on the ground, half-finished bottle of water still in his hand. “You can come with us, if you like. But there won’t be any hotels or cafés where we’re going. Just the road. Maybe the occasional friendly face while we travel. No one,” AZ said with a slight bit more emphasis, “is going to treat us like kings.”

The footfalls were as though two trees were quietly and softly moving and uprooting themselves every few paces. AZ did not look back. Lysandre knew that if he waited long enough, the man would be gone.

He wanted to go back to how things had been, with Team Flare and the familiarity of the labs and the security of his actions being unknown. To go back to still being able to meet new people and see the potential in the trainers that Sycamore chose.

Yet he understood, as he found that his feet were moving without having realised that he had made his decision, that he had destroyed far more than a building when he had destroyed his ultimate weapon. Those bridges had been burned, too. There would be no going back.

At least, not for a while.

Perhaps this would give him the chance to build new bridges and paths, instead.


End file.
